Last weekend we visited family friends in Palm Beach, a beach town north of Sydney. We hopped a bus for a little less than 2 hours and enjoyed watching the suburbs roll by. As always with public transportation, there were a couple characters on the bus and I was just glad that I could “politely” ignore the antics by plugging into my iPod. After arriving, we walked along the beach and enjoyed the scenery. We met Bryan’s family friend, Bob, at the local golf course and decided that it was getting pretty late in the evening to start a game so we headed to their home. The view was gorgeous and the company, outstanding. Sheba, Bob’s wife cooked a delicious meal of eggplant and chicken parmesan, strawberry salad with lemon vinaigrette and a flourless hazelnut cake with cream and fresh strawberries. We ate, drank and were merry. So much so that we stayed the night at Bob’s because we had missed the last bus home! I felt so grateful for these lovely people for their kindness and consideration. We ate BBQ, bacon and egg sandwiches in the morning to help us over the wine we had had the night before and headed home. Living by the ocean is such a pleasure, especially because the natural landscape is so well preserved. Coming from a land-locked state that is generally described as desert, it’s bizarre to see whales off in the distance and surfers out for a morning ride. The pitfall is now I don’t have any reasonable way to avoid bathing suits since every season except the dead of winter is swimsuit season. However, I think I can get through the effort of losing some kilos with such spectacular views along all the running paths The view from the Royal Botanical Gardens is my favorite (example below).
Bryan
It was wonderful to finally meet close family friends of my uncle's. We were in such welcoming company, I felt as if we were at a family dinner. A family dinner without all the yelling and chaos. Before the dinner, we met Bob and the golf course around 2. The plan was to get an embarrassing game of golf in before heading to the house for dinner. We found ourselves in a long line of people before us waiting to tee off so we thought getting a coffee at the popular coffee house would be better. We got a coffee and sat a while getting to know each other. Bob was very excited to hear what Supriya and I were doing.
After the coffee, it was about time to head to the house and help with the preparation. We quickly learned about the area and who lived here. All reserved for the rich and famous, it seemed. The lot just down the road was selling for a steal at 25 million AUD! One day......
Their house was no different. We felt like celebrities. Sheba, Bob's wife, was preparing an egg plant parmesan. And I have to admit that I am not the biggest fan of eggplant, but I couldn't stop eating it. They had friends of their own over for dinner as well. Duncan and Treg. We spent the night talking about everything from religion to Australian cuisine. We had so much fun and can't wait to do it again.